Anna wasn’t one for big celebrations but even she felt like she needed to blow off a little steam when they got back to Bristol. They met at the Lantern late that Saturday afternoon and sat in a corner table well away from everyone else. Rainsford had wanted to come. He even stood them a round. While he was at the bar and Holder and Khosa were playing Who Wants to Be a Millionaire on a slot machine and out of earshot, Dawes looked unusually serious.

‘Ma’am, I may not get a chance later, so I just wanted to say, thanks for letting me be a part of the squad.’

‘It’s me that should be thanking you, Phil,’ Anna said. Dawes had been great for the team. His brand of tough love was something she knew the squad valued. And she would never forget him accompanying her to that amusement arcade.

Dawes nodded but he looked uncomfortable.

‘Sounds like this is a goodbye,’ Anna said.

‘That’s just it, ma’am.’ Dawes turned again to make sure Khosa and Holder were out of earshot. ‘The missus is always telling me I have the knack of choosing exactly the wrong moment, but it’s been on my mind and I wanted it sorted.’

Anna held out her hand. ‘OK. Well, it’s been a pleasure. We…’ She paused. ‘I appreciate everything you’ve done.’

Dawes looked at the hand but didn’t offer his own. ‘Thing is, Superintendent Rainsford told me there’s a vacancy in the squad, ma’am. This may not be the way to do things and there probably ought to be a formal interview, but I’ve really enjoyed working with you. They said the cold case squad could be a little quiet.’ Dawes shook his head. ‘I don’t know many DIs who would have been prepared to walk through four feet of dirty water to find someone in a cyclone. In fact, bar you, I don’t know any. So, if I applied for a transfer, do you think I’d be in with a shout?’

Anna stared at him. He was exactly the sort of sergeant they needed. She needed. Experienced, tough, a good example. And there wouldn’t be an interview.

Dawes saw her face change, mistook it as hesitation and said, ‘You don’t have to say anything now, ma’am. Bad timing as usual.’

Anna’s hand had dropped away but she held it back up now. ‘The job’s yours if you want it, Phil.’

Dawes grinned. This time he did shake her hand. He looked across at Rainsford, who was signalling for some help with the drinks, and got up to assist. Anna saw the men exchange a few words.

‘Right,’ Rainsford said when he got back to the table and Holder and Khosa had joined them. ‘Congratulations to everyone involved for concluding a very complex investigation. We have King in custody and I suspect he’ll be more than happy to give us information on the Black Squid ringleaders if we tempt him with a lesser sentence.’

‘Don’t tell me he’s going to get any leeway for what he did to Colin Norcott,’ Anna said quickly.

Rainsford shook his head. ‘There are other ways. Killers like King don’t do well inside. They get eaten up and spat out. Guaranteed separation from the general prison population tends to work well as a bargaining point. Let’s see what he coughs up once that’s on the table.’ He held up his drink and said, ‘Cheers.’

The other four members of the team did likewise.

Rainsford took a deep breath. ‘But that’s not all I have to tell you. There is good news and bad. First of all, funding for the MCRTF is taking a further significant cut. We can’t justify continuing on the basis of cold cases only.’

Anna felt the blood drain from her face. Rainsford had warned her, but she hadn’t expected it to be this soon.

‘There was a budget meeting this morning. I’ve come straight here. Brutal stuff.’ Rainsford gave little shake of his head but then looked up with a tight smile. ‘However, given your expertise and results, it has been recognised that abandoning this task force completely would also be foolish. However, it means that as well as cold cases, you’ll be working active major crimes. The MCU could do with the help. It was the only way I could swing it with the chief constable. And closing this case today did not do our prospects any harm.’

Holder and Khosa exchanged glances. Anna read excitement in that look. Working active major crimes was a big step up for them.

‘So, we’ll be expected to do what we do now and deal with ongoing cases?’ Anna asked.

‘Yes. More of the same and some. But the silver lining is a confirmation that Phils’ presence on the team is now a permanent one. He’ll bring MCU expertise.’

‘What was that your wife said about your timing?’ Anna said with a wry look at Dawes.

Holder grinned. ‘Welcome to the madhouse, Sarge.’

Dawes, dry as ever, said, ‘I see my role here primarily as a tool for affirmative action in attempting to get the average age of the team up a few notches.’

Anna nodded. ‘There is that.’

‘And to develop good policing habits like getting the tea on for everyone as soon as they arrive’ – he turned pointedly towards Holder – ‘Justin. So as well as expertise, I’ll be bringing Hobnobs every Friday.’

Smiles all round.

Rainsford was good at his job. Good at engaging people in conversation. Even Anna. ‘Plans for tomorrow, Anna?’

‘Not much. I think the weather’s dry and Ben’s off, so we’ll walk the dog. Go to my sister’s for Sunday lunch probably. Normal, healthy things.’

Rainsford nodded. ‘A welcome and much-needed antidote to the horror and the filth.’

While Dawes made Holder and Khosa laugh with one of his jokes, Anna leaned forward towards her boss. ‘Any news on the Shaw front, sir?’

‘No. He’s nowhere.’

‘He must be somewhere.’

‘Do you know something, Anna? Any help would be greatly appreciated by our colleagues in West Mercia. They’re like headless chickens up there at the moment.’

‘He’ll be going after the Dorells, sir. I have no doubt about that.’

‘From what I know about them, it doesn’t help us much.’

Anna nodded. It was becoming clear the Dorells had managed to conceal their whereabouts very successfully from every and all forms of bureaucracy and authority.

‘I mean, are they even in the country?’

Anna considered this, knowing she had already. ‘I’d say yes, sir. It’s one thing to try and hide within the New Age community here, another thing altogether to try and get abroad. Not with their records.’

‘They don’t have credit cards or phone contracts.’

‘They don’t, but perhaps whoever it is they’re pretending to be might. And if they’re still responsible for Black Squid deaths, like Kimberley Williams’, we have a duty to do something about it.’

Rainsford nodded. ‘But that will be for another day.’ He sipped his drink. Orange juice from the look of it. Anna plumped for the house white and wished she’d gone for the Riesling instead. But Rainsford’s questions brought Shaw effortlessly back to her mind. She knew he’d be thinking exactly the same thoughts as she was. The Dorells and their sickening coercion were a pox that needed to be eradicated from the world. There would, she knew, be other cold cases for the team to investigate, but the Black Squid, until it was caught and laid out on a slab, would remain a thorn with the potential for turning poisonous at any moment.

The antidote, as Rainsford so aptly put it, was Ben and Lexi and Kate and her family. She was lucky to have them all. Lucky Ben convinced her that she needed to show patience and maybe even a little forgiveness towards her mother. She would try. And Kate’s roasties were the treasure at the end of the booby-trapped path the Sunday visit would no doubt turn out to be. Ben kept telling her she should embrace the fact that she was different and not fret about it.

Fretting only led to unhappiness.

Dawes, who was having a lift back with Khosa, had already finished his pint and was now offering to buy a second round. Anna declined politely. Ben was on his way to pick her up. But Holder said yes to Dawes’ offer while Khosa rolled her eyes and warned them she was leaving in half an hour.

‘Half an hour,’ said Dawes. ‘That’s four rounds, then.’

Khosa started to object but then she saw the teasing look on Dawes’ face and threw a beer mat at him.

Anna smiled but was already detaching, doing this thing she did in company, becoming an observer, always the cold analyst. Someone shouted at the bar, the punchline of a joke. The words were incoherent but the accent caught her ear. Northern, Mancunian.

It wasn’t him; the joke-teller was bigger, the wrong age at early forties, yet the noise pricked her consciousness and triggered the strangest thought.

Shaw was out there. Like her, he was now looking for scum, killers, monsters. He’d helped her on three occasions now. Helped her and played her as well. But when she raised the wine to her lips while the team laughed and joked around her, she felt herself saying his name in her head, knowing she could never say it out loud in polite company.

Not quite, but almost, a toast.